Kafil Yamin

A 'brutal attack' and 'un-Islamic' are just some of the words Indonesians are using to describe Tuesday's car bomb attack at the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta.

Why were some youth groups so daring as to attack critics of the Indonesian armed forces? They are backed by the military, of course. Now fears abound that the nation is going back to its darker days.

A scene in Aceh, along with the embedding of journalists with military forces going into hostile territory, somehow looks familiar to Indonesian viewers, who had followed the recent US-led invasion of Iraq.

But scepticism continues around the peace deal in Aceh, there are still reasons for the people in the war-torn Indonesian province to hope for peace, or at least for a cessation of hostilities, as miraculous as it sounds.

Abu Bakar Bashir, the alleged leader of terror organisation Jemaah Islamiah, claims to be nothing more than a simple preacher who wants an Islamic state to be set up in Indonesia.